Opportunity

This week, the house I live in was broken into. I don’t actually know the sequence of events for sure but it went something like this..

At 5am I woke to a loud noise like something was pulling at or shaking the security screens on the front of the house. I was vaguely aware that last time I had woken to that sort of shaking noise there was a sizeable earthquake in progress – so I got straight up out of bed, grabbed my mobile phone which is also a torch and went out into the downstairs living room.

I didn’t really have too much of a look around (which in hindsight was probably a good thing) because I heard pretty loud footsteps upstairs and made a few quick assumptions:
1. The cat had been jumping against the screens – as it does when it wants attention
2. The girls upstairs had heard it and gotten up to let it out/in

I really didn’t think anything of it – so often in this house sleep is disturbed – so I went to the bathroom, went back into my room, put the phone on top of my laptop on the bedside table and went to bed. For the next 5 minutes I heard more footsteps above, the screen door upstairs open and close and the toilet flush twice. Ok, I thought – everyone’s up and has synchronised bladders.. including the cat! I must have gone back to sleep in 2 minutes flat.

When I woke in the morning and looked at my watch to see it was 7.30am, I knew instantly something was wrong. I had set the alarm on my mobile for 7. I looked around for the phone and couldn’t see it anywhere. Then I clicked that the laptop wasn’t there either. I panicked a little, initially thinking I must have bumped them on the floor and that my laptop would be smashed. But I also thought I was going a little crazy. I ran upstairs where one of the girls was sitting at the breakfast table and looked at me a little strangely. “My laptop’s gone.” I said and ran back downstairs.. which was when I saw it; the security screen cut and pulled back – and a hole sliced in the flywire – about the right size to let in a slight man or boy.

I ran back upstairs to discover that my laptop bag with just about everything valuable I own in it had also been taken.

The thing that played most on my mind right at that moment was that there had been someone in my room – only inches away from where I slept – and I hadn’t heard them. I think though, we protect ourselves from these thoughts. Even now, I can’t actively dwell on it. I don’t know exactly what happened (thankfully!) and I can’t play it over and over in my mind. I just know I am safe and things could have been much worse than they are.

You can imagine that the whole thing has been a minor nightmare in terms of police reports, insurance, cancelling cards, accessing money, getting back in contact with the world..etc etc.. but I search for the meaning in it all and I am choosing to see it as an opportunity.

You see, since this happened, I have spoken to so many more people about what is happening here in this country – about why and how crime occurs and about how people feel about it. Without fail, the first words out of every local person’s mouth have been “I am so sorry this happened to you”. Compassion and kindness have been shown at every turn.

I can choose to have this turn of events rock my faith in this place, in the people I have grown to love and admire – or I can see it as an opportunity to show compassion, to learn patience, to test trust. So I do. Nothing is so bad. I have another computer I can access to connect with my world at home, I have the resources to replace the mobile phones and other bits and pieces that were taken. I now have access to security and have thought a little more deeply about safety measures – and I am lucky with all of this that I can depend on these things. Others aren’t as lucky and don’t get to feel as safe as I do.

So this time, opportunity didn’t knock; it ripped a dirty great hole in the side of the house and came right into my room. But opportunity it was – to be thankful for everything I have.